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Festival Napa Valley is proud to announce the commissioning and world premiere of The Judgment of Paris, a new one-act opera by acclaimed composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. The work will debut on July 18, 2026, on the Festival Napa Valley Stage at Charles Krug Winery, as part of Festival Napa Valley’s landmark 20th Anniversary Season. This project marks Festival Napa Valley’s first opera commission and will be performed with full orchestra.

GRAMMY® and Emmy Award-winning baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. has been lauded as a "passionate performer" (The New York Times) with a voice that is "electric, hall-filling" (The Baltimore Sun), making him "one of the most exciting baritone sounds to come along in years" (Opera News). 

American composer Jake Heggie is best known for Dead Man Walking, the most widely-performed new opera of the last 25 years. His compositions have been performed on five continents, and he regularly collaborates with some of the world’s most beloved artists as both a composer and pianist.

Kent Nagano is considered one of today’s outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. He will be the next Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España in Madrid in September 2026 and is the newly appointed Principal Artistic Partner of Filarmonica Toscanini.

Ronny Michael Greenberg is a pianist, producer, and musical visionary whose career bridges performance, curation, and artistic leadership. His work has illuminated stages from Carnegie Hall to Vienna’s Konzerthaus, while also reshaping how audiences experience music through innovative, immersive cultural programming.

Festival Napa Valley attracts some of the world’s finest vocalists, who serve as faculty and coaches for the vocal conservatory. Performing with renowned vocalists is a distinctive part of the conservatory experience at Festival Napa Valley.

  Frost School of Music, University of Miami
Percussionist Pablo Rieppi is a tenured member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, as well as Percussion Department Coordinator and faculty member at the Juilliard School's Pre-College Division and Music Advancement Program. He recently joined the faculty at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.

  Frost School of Music, University of Miami
Brian Powell is Associate Professor of Double Bass and Music Education at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. Dr. Powell’s work as a clinician and performer of classical music and string pedagogy are equally significant and internationally known. 

Peter Wahrhaftig is the principal tuba of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. In addition, he is the principal tuba of Sun Valley Music Festival. He is a founding member of the Grammy-nominated group, The Bay Brass, and he has performed with such legends as Metallica and Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Equally at home in the world of opera, symphonic repertoire and contemporary music, American conductor Ryan McAdams has established a presence on both sides of the Atlantic. A contemporary music advocate, Ryan is the Principal Conductor of the Crash Ensemble, Ireland's foremost contemporary music group. 

A strong and endearing personality, Nicolas André conducts both opera and concerts, from early music to world premieres, ballet, and vocal music. André is currently associate conductor of the French ensemble Le Concert Sprituel, and from 2018 to 2022, he was the musical assistant to Kent Nagano at Staatsoper Hamburg.